A Mortal Affliction
by Shmendrick
Summary: Hades always believed love was something that only mortals suffered yet now he finds his beliefs were wrong.
1. Hades

Hades turned slowly to face his throne, he who had laughed at the souls of the heartbroken dead, those who took their lives to ease their pain now understood the reason, if such a word could be applicable to his situation, they did it. For him, an immortal, there could be no cessation of the pain. He was doomed to suffer under her spell for eternity. He would always suffer under the spell of Persephone the goddess of spring. She had spurned his advances and turned from him. He had tried to please her in every way. He had made her flowers but she rejected them, her excuse that they were made by the dead and were flowers of the dead. He could not give her more than he had given already for he had given her his heart and felt it break when she returned it after her own fashion. No, she had not returned it at all she had kept his heart and given him a new one which felt strange and wrong in his chest.

The souls of the dead could sense something was wrong and curled around him, their strange grey forms resembling the incense burnt to the gods in their temples. All of these souls would have burned that incense in their time yet here they were all alike, all these unformed shadow children who cluster to their lord's distress like moths to a candle. Hades swept his hand towards them meaning to push them away yet his hand passed through them like a sword through incense and as sword through incense it did them no harm.

Hades cursed his luck that he could not be alone with his misery for more than a second without his servants dancing attention on him. He turned from them and went to find the Fates. These three women who knew every nuance of mortal life may be able to help him with his mortal affliction.

How dark the halls of Hades seemed now she had left. Where once she had tried to bring life and beauty to his home, now in the agonizing aftermath of her pitiful attempt the cloying darkness seemed to reign ever stronger among the withered roses that twined into cracks on walls slowly crumbling with age and the force of Hades's wrath. Only the echoing sound of Clotho's singing as she spun her threads of life let him know he was not the only one left trapped in this silent hell inside a twisted love story that the Muses would love to whisper into the ears of some unsuspecting poet. He entered the Fates' cavernous hall, barely pausing at the door to allow them to acknowledge his presence in their domain. Clotho's singing continued and though he knew she was singing the songs of the mortals whose thread she spun it fell upon his ears like the ringing of some death knoll echoing for some unloved king for whom, even in death, the correct ceremonies must be observed. The only sound in this damp cave was Clotho and the River Styx as their voices mingled in painful harmony. Clotho's voice rose ever higher reaching for a note few mortal singers, though they be accounted great among those short-lived, scurrying ants, could ever hope to reach.

"O, Fates."

Hades bowed low, he may be the Lord of this decaying realm but even he had to observe some basic courtesies to these women.

"Lord Hades, what brings you to our humble abode?"

Atropos, the oldest of three beautiful sisters, stepped forward her shears in her hand and an evil smile upon her lips. The mortals, which were bound so deeply to the immortal it was sometimes almost impossible to tell the difference, were most afraid of this women with her dark pleasure in ending their brief lives. Her sister, the fair beauty, Lachesis stood behind her with her measuring stick in her hand. They held their instruments like weapons as though they longed to escape from his iron shackles and live among the world of light in Olympus with the golden gods. Clotho remained seated, she was the most shy of the sisters hiding herself in the shadows. She was content to stay here while her sisters dreamed of something beyond the night of Hades, of the bright lights of Mount Olympus. She alone of the Fates offered him a tentative smile though it vanished under her sister's withering glare. She knew his fate for she alone of all the fates had spun the thread of the lives of the Gods of Mount Olympus and she alone knew the fate of the Fates and had accepted a life in the frost untouched by the sun's glimmer of hope.

"I have a favour to humbly beg of you."

Atropos laughed cruelly, the harsh sound grating on his ears like a call of a carrion crow when it's far-sighted eyes spot a carcass in a barren land and calling to it's flock mates it lands.

"The great Hades has lowered himself to talk to us lowly Fates though our destinies and his are intertwined as we deal in mortal lives."

Lachesis replied, Clotho as was usual for her said nothing and allowed her sisters to fight.

"I do not consider it lowering myself to talk to you, it is a most refreshing distraction."

Clotho's lips twitched in amusement as Lachesis looked slightly disconcerted. Clotho rose from her chair and stood just behind her sisters.

"Perhaps you would tell us your errand here?" she suggested quietly.

Hades nodded.

"I wish to know my fate."

The eldest two fates turned from him, only Clotho stood her ground though she shrunk back slightly in fear.

"That is not permitted." Her voice was still quiet yet steady and stern, she would not falter.

"By whom is it not permitted?"

"By the laws of the universe laid when it was created." Clotho answered.

"Then there is a force greater than the gods?"

"Then there is a force which rules all which is the gods."

"Yet we are the gods so rules do not apply."

"Yet we are the gods so the gods' rules apply."

Clotho replied sadly and Hades was reminded of the rules that bound her life, the rules of fate. Atropos returned to her sister's side.

"I think it is best you go now Lord Hades."

He bowed

"Thank you for your time it has been most interesting talking to you."

Clotho didn't reply while Atropos merely narrowed her eyes, he couldn't see Lachesis' expression though he could see her shoulders tighten as he turned to leave the hall. He would have to find another way to answer his question.


	2. Persephone

Persephone sighed, it was spring but for some reason she did not feel as she usually did; the colours did not seem as beautiful this year, as though they had faded in the bright sunshine. She could take no delight in the wonders she usually saw in spring, the season of rebirth. She had been found and brought back to the surface by her mother, Demeter, but after her time in the underworld she could find no beauty in this world above the surface. She wanted to return to the dark of the underworld where the dead roses bloomed. She had tried to make roses, to show her love what he was missing but they had not worked. She smiled in memory of that conversation.

_She curled upon the bed sobbing in disgust at her failure. Hades sat by her and reached his hand out to touch her shoulder tentatively. _

"_What is wrong my love?" _

_She sat up and leaned against him; he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tightly against him._

"_The flowers aren't alive, I can't make them live," she sobbed._

_Hades chuckled and she stiffened. _

"_Is that all?" He asked._

_She pulled free of his grasp and turned to glare at him. _

"_Is that all?" She snapped. "I, the goddess of Spring, cannot make the flowers bloom and you act as if this is some trivial matter." _

_Hades reached out to her. _

"_I did not mean to trivialize the matter, I'm sorry." _

_Persephone curled up on the bed again with her back to him. _

"_May I ask one question? After that I'll leave you in peace if you wish,"_

_She sat up and pouted._

"_Just one?"_

"_Just one," he promised. _

_She sighed melodramatically._

"_Go on then," she said with a wave of her hand as though she was granting him some great favour. _

_He smiled at her response and she pouted back at him. _

"_Why were you trying to make flowers anyway?"_

_She sighed and drew her knees up to her chin; wrapping her arms round them she rested her chin on her knees and studied him for a moment. _

"_I wanted to show you something beautiful."_

_He smiled gravely at her. _

"_You already have."_

_She smiled weakly then replied:_

"_I wanted to show you I could create something beautiful."_

"_Why?"_

"_I wanted to make everywhere beautiful for you."_

"_These halls have been the same way for millennia, at the moment you're all the beauty I can take."_

_She smiled at him and when he held his arms out to her again she moved back with him again. _

"_Why wouldn't the flowers grow?"_

_He sighed and Persephone smiled as she felt him kiss the top of her head. _

"_Because this is the realm of the dead, Persephone. Nothing can live here."_

"_Oh."_

_He suddenly stood up and she fell back on the bed._

"_I shouldn't have brought you here, it was a mistake."_

"_Oh really and why is that?"_

"_For the exact reason I've just said."_

"_I don't care Hades. I really don't, I'd rather be here than with all the living creatures in the world." _

_He glanced at her and raised an eyebrow; she nodded with determination on her face. He sighed. _

"_Well, I've done it now I can't change the past."_

"_No you can't."_

_He eyed her thoughtfully. _

"_I could take you back however."_

"_Don't you dare!"_

_He chuckled. _

"_Don't worry I won't."_

"_You better not."_

Persephone smiled to herself as she remembered how she had tried to impress him with her roses but had failed. She sighed wondering if she would ever see him again. Her mother had been adamant that she would never return however Hades was intending to plead their case to Zeus. She hoped Zeus would listen because if he didn't then she may have lost her chances at seeing Hades again. She remembered how desperately he had searched for some food of living he could eat when she felt her powers begin to wane. In the realm of the dead they at the food of the dead but this could not sustain a goddess of the living.

_Hades silently entered the room is left hand holding something Persephone could not see._

"_This is all we have."_

_She held out her hand and he dropped into it six pomegranate seeds._

"_If you'd let me take you above to the surface then you could find food that you can eat."_

_Persephone shook her head._

"_Down here I am safe you can keep me shielded but up there Mother would see u in an instant."_

"_So we could come back down here where she cannot follow."_

"_If I can survive down here so can she." _

_Hades sighed. _

"_You are getting weaker and six pomegranate seeds will not sustain you for long."_

"_I can make them last."_

"_Not long enough though."_

"_What can we do then?"_

"_Maybe you should return when you have eaten all the pomegranate seeds and we will ask Zeus to allow you to stay. The rules say whoever eats in the realms of the dead has to stay in the realms of the dead; maybe Zeus will uphold this rule."_

"_And if he doesn't?"_

"_We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."_

Well we're almost at that bridge now and I hope you've got a plan for getting across because the only thing I can think of is me hiding in the underworld but we already know that won't work forever. She wished there had been some way of making flowers grow in the underworld for that ha only been one part of her plan. While what she had told Hades had been truthful it had not been the whole truth. She had wanted to grow flowers for their beauty yes but she had also wanted to grow things she could eat so she would never have to return to the surface again. If her plan had worked she would not now be facing her predicament. The pomegranate seeds were about to run out and when they did she had promised Hades that she would return with him to the surface to try and find some way of solving their predicament. She did not want to run the risk of losing him and though she had tried to make the pomegranate seeds last as long as possible she couldn't stretch it out any longer. She would have to return soon though she dreaded it.


End file.
